Political correctness kills.

Now we are learning that Dr. Hasan, the murderer of Fort Hood, was cut enormously more slack than any non-Muslim would have received. He retained his position only because of his minority status.

“Two years ago, a top psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center was so concerned about what he saw as Nidal Hasan’s incompetence and reckless behavior that he put those concerns in writing. NPR has obtained a copy of the memo, the first evaluation that has surfaced from Hasan’s file.

Officials at Walter Reed sent that memo to Fort Hood this year when Hasan was transferred there.

Nevertheless, commanders still assigned Hasan — accused of killing 13 people in a mass shooting at Fort Hood on Nov. 5 — to work with some of the Army’s most troubled and vulnerable soldiers.

The Damning Memo

On May 17, 2007, Hasan’s supervisor at Walter Reed sent the memo to the Walter Reed credentials committee. It reads, “Memorandum for: Credentials Committee. Subject: CPT Nidal Hasan.” More than a page long, the document warns that: “The Faculty has serious concerns about CPT Hasan’s professionalism and work ethic. … He demonstrates a pattern of poor judgment and a lack of professionalism.” It is signed by the chief of psychiatric residents at Walter Reed, Maj. Scott Moran.

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The December 2009 Atlantic contains an article by David Dobbs entitled The Science of Success that tries to take a Greg Cochran-Henry Harpending idea and give it a Malcolm Gladwell-like spin.

Dobbs’ article begins:

Most of us have genes that make us as hardy as dandelions: able to take root and survive almost anywhere. A few of us, however, are more like the orchid: fragile and fickle, but capable of blooming spectacularly if given greenhouse care. So holds a provocative new theory of genetics, which asserts that the very genes that give us the most trouble as a species, causing behaviors that are self-destructive and antisocial, also underlie humankind’s phenomenal adaptability and evolutionary success. With a bad environment and poor parenting, orchid children can end up depressed, drug-addicted, or in jail—but with the right environment and good parenting, they can grow up to be society’s most creative, successful, and happy people.

Dandelions and Orchids are kind of like Malcolm Gladwell’s Picasso and Cezannes: Malcolm gave a speech last year to a conference of math teachers on how some students are like Picasso and everything comes quickly to them, while others are like Cezanne, where it takes them a long time before they become geniuses.

Dobbs then explains about how having social workers come into the homes of new mothers can improve their parenting skills.

This is all part of the ongoing trend toward the future Stolen Generation of African-American children. Notice how there are two movies out this month, Precious and The Blind Side, both about how 350-pound impoverished black teenagers’ lives can be fixed up by caring social workers and/or white adoptive parents. (more…)

From the Washington Post:

Sniper John Allen Muhammad is executed
10 died in Oct. 2002 rampage; motivation remains unclear

From the Washington Post:

Leaders of the U.S. Naval Academy tinkered with the composition of the color guard that appeared at a World Series game last month so the group would not be exclusively white and male. …

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, elevated diversity to a “strategic imperative” during his tenure as chief of naval operations. Academy leaders, on their official Web site, call diversity “our highest personnel priority.”

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Lionel McIntyre [email him] is Nancy and George Rupp Associate Professor in the Practice of Community Development at Columbia University. His recent efforts in the practice of community development include getting arrested for punching a white woman in the face. (Allegedly.) They were discussing “white privilege.” McIntyre is a professor, the privileged victim “works as a production manager in the school’s theater department.” It is not possible for the press to ignore the racial aspects of this story completely, but look at the headlines:

Prof busted in Columbia gal ‘punch’

You used to hear all the time about how minorities are more likely to die fighting America’s wars than whites are, but the ethnic distribution of military deaths no longer interests the mainstream media. This Pentagon document lists military deaths in Operation Enduring Freedom (i.e., Afghanistan) from October 7, 2001 through February 28, 2009.

Leaving out the five ambiguous cases (mixed or unknown), minorities have suffered only 20 percent of the military deaths in Operation Enduring Freedom, despite making up 38 percent of the 20 to 24 year olds in 2008. Per capita, Non-Hispanic whites have been 2.47 times as likely as minorities to die in Afghanistan.

How could this statistic be spun so it’s “appropriate” for the mainstream media? Here’s a feasible headline:

Minorities Discriminated Against at VA Cemeteries
Whites Get More Free Burials

Why was the Palestinian Muslim terrorist / U.S. Army major such a hot potato for the mainstream media last week that they tried various misdirection ploys, such as the New York Times‘ November 7th article “When Soldiers Snap“?

A few reasons:

1. The press has indoctrinated itself to despise stereotypes, partly for ideological reasons, partly for economic ones–“Man Bites Dog” is a better headline than “Dog Bites Man.” Yet another Palestinian Muslim terrorist is a “Dog Bites Man” story.

2. Another reason is that Major Hasan is such a classic example of “dual loyalties.” We’ve all been told over and over again that the entire concept of dual loyalties is a baseless anti-Semitic smear and therefore doesn’t exist.

In truth, of course, multiple loyalties are an unavoidable reality of life, which is precisely why George Washington’s Farewell Address (the single most carefully considered utterance by the Founding Fathers — it was worked on over four years by Washington, Hamilton, Madison, and Jay) devotes so much effort to warning about how to handle them. For example:

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy to be useful must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.

3. There’s the Barack Hussein Obama angle. The press has a strong feeling that they must protect Obama from anything that could tangentially tarnish him. Of course, if they would just read Obama’s memoir carefully, they would see that Islam never had any appeal for him–it’s too universalist. The President liked all of The Autobiography of Malcolm X until the uninspiring conclusion when Malcolm converts from the Nation of Islam to orthodox Islam after seeing the races mix on pilgrimage in Mecca.

From the Washington Post:

Under a slide titled “Comments,” he wrote: “If Muslim groups can convince Muslims that they are fighting for God against injustices of the ‘infidels’; ie: enemies of Islam, then Muslims can become a potent adversary ie: suicide bombing, etc.” [sic]

The last bullet point on that page reads simply: “We love death more then (sic) you love life!”

Under the “Conclusions” page, Hasan wrote that “Fighting to establish an Islamic State to please God, even by force, is condoned by the Islam,” and that “Muslim Soldiers should not serve in any capacity that renders them at risk to hurting/killing believers unjustly — will vary!”

The final page, labeled “Recommendation,” contained only one suggestion:

“Department of Defense should allow Muslims (sic) Soldiers the option of being released as ‘Conscientious objectors’ to increase troop morale and decrease adverse events.”

Of course, conscientious objection status is only granted to pacifists, not to people who would rather hurt us than the enemy.

A reader sends me an email asking me to write an article on last week’s elections, but then proceeds to do all the work for me, so here it is:

I know you must be busy, but if you get a chance, I would ask that you write an article discussing the racial implications of the various 2009 elections. I would love to hear your thoughts. There really seemed to be a lot of what could only be described as “bloc voting” by whites, and I wonder if you think the election of Barack Obama, and the triumphalism of the mainstream media (”new era,” etc.) may have had something to do with it.

In the race for Virginia Governor, the mainstream media keeps declaring it an “issues” oriented race, focusing on “pocketbook” issues, that McDonnell did better on than his opponent Creigh Deeds. As a Virginia resident who followed the elections, this doesn’t explain it well enough for me. There has to be another angle. Yes, every ad for McDonnell I saw focused vaguely on “jobs.” But other than ads attacking McDonnell for his 20-year old Master’s thesis, every ad Creigh Deeds ran focused vaguely on “jobs.” Everybody knew McDonnell’s conservative positions on social issues, and that should have hurt him in what is (although still moderately conservative) becoming a more socially liberal state. Yet they still gave him a landslide victory, with 67% of the white vote and 54% of women of all races (the results weren’t broken down by race and gender).

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We haven’t had a good Sammy Sosa story in a while, so here’s a new one with pictures of how the ex-Cubs slugger is only half as dark as he used to be. Some of the difference is probably just the lighting in the latest picture — my passport photo, for example, is so overexposed that I look like Tilda Swinton’s dad’s ghost. Still, the article makes clear by the lengths to which Sosa’s PR agent goes on, that something is going on.

Steve’s Idea of the Day for Bored Reporters: show these pictures to White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. Record his comments. (For readers unfamiliar with his personality, here’s the video Ozzie Guillen Visits a Sick Child from the Chicago public access cable show We’re Geniuses in France.)

And from the always reliable Daily Mail of London, the umpteenth confirmation of Sailer’s Rule of Female Journalism:

Why are so many black and Asian women desperate to be white?
By Yamin Alibhai-Brown

You might think that with all the media interest in this question, journalists might occasionally look up on Google something about anthropologist Peter Frost’s book Fair Women, Dark Men: The Forgotten Roots of Color Prejudice, which answers the question. But, nah, finding out the answer is hardly the point of asking, so Frost’s book is almost unknown. Frost, by the way, explain why Sammy’s new highly-contrasting-cheeks-and-lips look is not a good look for guys.